Optical activity in the region of interfering laser-induced continuum structures

Abstract

Optical activity of atomic medium with interfering laser induced continuum structures is studied theoretically and illustrated by the example of hydrogen. The optically active region in the atomic spectrum is scanned by linearly polarized probe field whose polarization properties are changed by the medium. Analytical equations for acquired ellipticity and polarization plane rotation are obtained. They demonstrate that the optical activity is a non-trivial function of the parameters of the driving laser fields. Numerical results are presented for the VUV probe radiation with two circularly polarized lasers, coupling the hydrogen Ep continuum with the 2s and the 5s, 5d states, respectively.